Vladimir Putin and the Future of Russian Anti-Americanism

The first logical question involving Russian anti-Americanism is: What were the origins and dynamics of the phenomenon? Secondly: What is its role in the politics of President Putin? And last, but not least, what are the nature and the magnitude of the real danger Russia is facing? The appearance of post-Soviet Russian anti-Americanism has been determined to a large degree by the events that took place during the early nineties of the last century.
The spread of large scale negativity towards the United States was closely related to the events marking the presidency of Boris Yeltsyn. On the one hand it was he who was pleading for the establishment of an American-Russian strategic alliance. On the other hand however, Yeltsyn was responsible for the disastrous privatization of the state owned sector of the Russian economy.
It turned out to be an act that was quick in dividing the Russian society into a small group of superrich oligarchs and an...(Read Full Article)